best small pickup 2019

It’s like they picked the most and the least car-like of all pickups for their top 2 picks.

 

I have my doubts. It will sell very well for the first year; fine in the second year...but sales will stall after that. Gladiator is too nichey and too pricey to sustain sales beyond that. Add to that Jeep’s traditional indifference towards quality and customer service, and it will be difficult to retain many of those more affluent buyers FCA is attracting with the truck.

 

That lifetime warranty was amazing! When I had my '15 JK someone on the Jeep forum had essentially a group buy, price was right under $2K.

 

Honda makes some great products. Why don’t they go head to head with Toyota and make a real truck? I’d consider one if it was more like a Tacoma.

 

I'm biased too toward the Taco.

I can see how the Ridgeline would top lists for the general public, but again not for people buying a truck for truck purposes. I think it would sell better to the SUV crowd if it looked less like a truck, and more like a crossover of some type (El Camino, Baja, etc.). In fact, if they just called it a "crossover" in marketing it would probably boost sales by 100% LOL.

The Gladiator is like the answer to a question no one asked. As far as reliability, well on another non-Jeep forum someone posted about getting a new JL Wrangler 2-door, fully loaded and special color, and within 1000 miles of ownership it was in the shop for transmission breakdown.

I wouldn't mind a Wrangler for a fun vehicle, but not for a daily driver and certainly not out of warranty.

 

Yes, FCA interiors look better than Toyota’s...and are more comfortable. But Toyota interiors hold up better. And I am not even talking years; FCA’s new interiors start loosening and developing rattles and squeaks after only a few months.

That was what finally drove me away from FCA: a stunningly gorgeous $53,000 2016 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack that started developing all types of rattles, squeaks and chirps at 5,000 miles; a $52,000 2018 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Recon that came with misaligned panels and by 8,000 miles it creaked and squeaked like an old POS. To add insult to injury, Jeep dealers are so overwhelmed with warranty work that it is impossible to get them to pay any attention to that very expensive vehicle you just bought.

For decades Wrangler had one of the strongest resale values on the market, but FCA killed it by jacking up the price so much and producing so many. Wrangler inventories have been running at 120-140 days (ideal is 60 days; 90 days is considered high) for the past 7-8 months. Gladiator is only going to cannibalize Wrangler sales and add to the glut.

No thank you.

 

Check out the pricing on the Gladiator,way off by about $20k.Just saw my first one in person in front of Home Depot

 

They look good in person,but for $60k plus they should.

 

Ridgelines are not even a true truck.

 

Honda refuses so build a body-on-frame vehicle, or an engine bigger than a 3.5 V6.

They have their reasons: they save a ton of money by spinning Ridgeline off Pilot; and building Ridgeline alongside Pilots, Odysseys, MDXs, TLXs and Accords gives them a ton of manufacturing flexibility adjusting production to demand.

Unfortunately, none of those reasons pertain truck users; they are strictly internal to Honda.

 

And yet, for 95% of US truck consumers, it's more truck than they will ever need. The amount of F150's I see around me that haul no more than soccer shoes and the occasional kitchen garbage bag is pretty amazing.

 

That’s because we buy vehicles for that one use we plan to do 1% of the time.

Minivan and Suburban buyers are no different: they buy a 9-person vehicle for that one weekend a year grandma and grandpa come visit.

 

It's J.D. power. Haven't you seen Mahk tear apart Chevy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0jTcGBxh6w

 

I pulled up next to Ridgleine the other day and thought I was gonna get an STD and then I realized it's not getting any action. Problem solved.

 

Trucks or not, these vehicles are anything but "compact." I guess Toyota is still calling the RAV4 a "small SUV" and Highlander is "midsize" LOL.

 

>>>>> this>>>>>>
"I still look at it like it is the hot chick I don't deserve every time I walk up to it."

isn't the new Tacoma as big as the old tundra?

 

Yes, as the T100. In fact, when I park next to a current Silverado or Sierra, the hood of my Tacoma is at the same level.

 

This may be true for certain models. I drove 2015 Ram 1500 for 3 years and had no problems with it. then I had a 2017 Ram 1500 which, unfortunately, I only had for under a year. No rattles, or loosening material inside or out. Maybe I'm the lucky one. Loved both of those trucks. Some complaints on the forums, but that's in every forum, and how.

My parents had a Jeep Patriot for 3 years, and it held up great also, and now they are in a Jeep Compass, but haven't had it long enough to tell of its durability.

 

I haul rain water.

 

I owned Chrysler products for 30 years: I noticed a significant deterioration in the assembly quality and customer service particularly over the past 4-5 years.